Email test post and thank you

31Dec

Hello

This is a test post to check whether or not sending the letters by email is working. While I am here, I thought I’d let you know a bit about how the project is going.

The Twitter feed widely followed with well over 2000 followers. I left it to itself for a lot of the year, and am starting to re-engage with it again which will increase the followers as the war progresses. Facebook is expensive so I am not using it much to publicise the letters but I will use it a bit more in 2016. These emails are good, but it’s hard to gell when they stop working properly. Do please email me if you miss the letters for a while. info@familyletters.co.uk will get to me.

Please like and share posts directly on Facebook or Twitter. This helps enormously.

In April I gave a short talk about the Indian Army in WW1 to an audience of a couple of hundred people who found it moving, most of whom had not realised the Indian Army had been involved in the fighting at all. I gave a couple of longer talks about the letters to smaller groups in Edinburgh who also enjoyed them. This is something I hope to do more of, so if you have a group like the WI or Rotarians interested in a speaker, please let me know.

I managed to track down the exact house in Guildford that Gertrude lived in; it’s now a business centre and I hope to get in touch with the people managing it to let them know the house’s history. It was odd wandering around the gardens on a Sunday trying to match the views with the photographs of the family. I also found the site of Churn railway station where Ted was sent very briefly in the summer of 1915.

It’s been thrilling to be in touch with so many people about the project including cousins I didn’t know existed. I owe great thanks to my extended family for their time and their memories. The project has also made me alert to the First World War all around us, from memorabilia in museums to war memorials in hotels and railway stations.

In other news, I am breaking my “no spoilers” rule to say that I’m very proud that the Orkney museum will be including Paul’s letter about Jutland in their display this summer and I hope to attend the Jutland commemorations in Orkney in May.

Finally – thank you so much for following the letters so far. I really appreciate it.

4 responses to “Email test post and thank you”

Email definitely working! When there have been ‘quiet’ times I’ve assumed this was because nobody was writing home, but I get something most days and I’m finding the letters fascinating. Thank you.

Family Letters

31 December, '15 at 16:16

Excellent to know. Thank you very much!

Douglas Rogers

2 January, '16 at 10:20

Hi – I noticed that an email on the 9th of September this year was the last for a while and checked up on the website. I re-applied for emails to be sent and the next email was on the 19th of October – though I did not get an acknowledgement email like the first time I subscribed. Not sure what happened but emails since then have been good. Quite an eye opener watching the progress of the war through these letters. Thank you for setting this up!

Family Letters

2 January, '16 at 23:14

Thank you Douglas, you are very kind.

If the leters falter again, do please let me know and I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to fix it. Unfortunately updates to the software of the website don’t always run as smoothly as they should.